Singapore state-owned port operator PSA International Pte Ltd said on Wednesday the volume of containers it moved at its local and overseas terminals jumped 19.3 percent in the first half of 2004 on a year ago.
The port operator said its global container volumes reached 16.1 million twenty-foot equivalent units (TEUs) in the first six months from 13.5 million TEUs in the same period last year.
Asian ports are expected to show stronger growth in container volumes handled this year, boosted by booming regional trade as a result of China's economic growth, analysts said.
PSA, which operates the world's largest trans-shipment hub in Singapore, said its local terminals handled 15.1 percent more containers in the first half of the year, totalling 9.9 million TEUs, which is about 60 percent of its total volumes handled world-wide.
PSA, which has investments in port projects in Belgium, Brunei, China, India, Italy, Portugal, South Korea and Thailand, said it shifted 26.5 percent more by volume from its overseas terminals, totalling 6.2 million TEUS, in the six months.
In Singapore PSA has invested S$120 million in cranes for its new berths to help meet an expected rise in volumes. The port operator is speeding up the construction of five new berths in the city state to meet an expected annual growth of about one million TEUs over the next few years.
Another Singapore port operator, Jurong Port, said it more than doubled its container throughput in the first half, to 288,000 TEUs from 119,000 TEUs in the first six months of 2003.
Comments
Comments are closed.